CITIC mocks 'Professor' Palmer at WA trial

Lawyers for China's biggest conglomerate have mocked Clive Palmer at a civil trial in Perth for referring to himself as a professor, using a pseudonym and boasting about litigation being a hobby.

It also emerged on the second day of the Supreme Court of WA case between his private company Mineralogy and CITIC Ltd on Thursday that Mr Palmer would not give evidence, despite telling reporters less than 24 hours earlier he would testify.

The trial centres on a disputed 2006 agreement for the Sino Iron project in WA's Pilbara region, which CITIC built and operates, drawing ore from Mineralogy-owned land.

The contract included CITIC agreeing to pay Mineralogy two different types of royalties but the parties cannot agree on how to calculate the far greater second royalty, which the Chinese corporate giant has refused to pay.

CITIC argues the iron ore industry's abandonment of its annual benchmark pricing system in 2010 meant the contract was uncertain.

But Mineralogy is seeking damages, saying the agreement did not contain reference to the benchmark price and instead used more general, flexible language.

CITIC's lawyer Charles Scerri showed the court documents from previous joint venture negotiations between the parties, which failed to result in a deal, in a bid to show the intent of the final agreement was to use the benchmark price to determine the royalty amount if prices for BHP and Vale iron ore products ceased to be a reasonable proxy.

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He argued that Justice Kenneth Martin needed to look at the earlier deal attempts, which would give context to the ultimate agreement, but the judge replied "the commercial world would be in chaos" if earlier negotiations were considered part of a deal.

Both parties had had an opportunity to put those aside and draw up a fresh, high-level contract, he said, adding "we're dealing with heavyweights here".

The documents provided a glimpse of hostile exchanges before the ill-fated Pilbara joint venture even got off the ground, with an email from Terry Smith - an alias used by Mr Palmer - describing a CITIC lawyer's letter as "a sick joke" as it suggested jointly developing the multi-billion dollar project.

The court heard Mr Palmer had previously contemplated an 80:20 partnership, but ended up deciding he wanted the royalties without the risk, while CITIC didn't want him as a minority shareholder in a company they acquired from him.

Mr Scerri said Mr Palmer's Who's Who entry listed litigation as a hobby, which explained why CITIC "got cold feet about getting into bed" with him.

The entry currently lists his recreation as reading, golf and football.

Mr Scerri also told the court Mr Palmer, who has an honorary doctorate, had "never' been entitled to call himself professor and had "stormed out" of at least one meeting.